The funding announced in March, by Universities and Science Minister David Willetts, forms part of the Advanced Manufacturing strand of the Government's Growth Review and is intended to stimulate growth through research in the most promising areas of manufacturing including pharmaceuticals, aerospace and the automotive industry.
Mr Willetts commented: "These centres will increasingly be essential drivers of innovation, opportunity and national prosperity. They will combine inventive research and business acumen to develop the high-tech manufacturing industries we need to secure sustainable growth."
The £45 million will fund nine Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centres for Innovative Manufacturing. The EPSRC centres are backed by industry partners including GSK, Rolls-Royce, IBM and a range of high-tech small and medium sized enterprises. The nine centres are:
- The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Ultra Precision Surfaces, led by Cranfield University. It will create ultra high precision manufacturing tools that can make products with nanoscale precision. The grant value will total £5.2 million, with an additional £1.2 million from industry partners.
- The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing for Industrial Sustainability, led by Cranfield University. It will rapidly reduce the resource and energy-intensity of the production of existing goods, and investigate options for a radical redesign of the industrial system. The grant will total £4.5 million, with an additional £1.3 million from industry partners.
- The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Through Life Engineering Services, led by Cranfield University. It will design high value systems such as aircraft engines that require less engineering service, and incur less whole life cost. The grant will total £4.8 million, with an additional £3.5 million from industry partners.
- The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Composites, led by the University of Nottingham. It will develop the next generation of composite manufacturing processes based on low cost, short cycle times, efficiency and sustainability. The grant will total £4.9 million, with an additional £1.8 million from industry partners.
- The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Intelligent Automation, led by Loughborough University. It will capture and advance human skills and develop automated processes. The grant will total £4.8 million, with an additional £334,000 from industry partners.
- The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Additive Manufacturing, led by Loughborough University. It will combine multi-material, multifunctional devices with amalgamated electrical, optical and structural properties in a single manufacturing process using additive manufacturing. The EPSRC grant will total £4.9 million, with an additional £3.2 million from industry partners.
- The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallisation, led by the University of Strathclyde. It will take forward the move from batch manufacturing to fully continuous manufacturing processes for high value chemical products. This will lead to higher levels of quality, lower cost and more sustainable production. The grant will total £4.9 million, with an additional £1.8 million from industry partners.
- The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Advanced Metrology, led by the University of Huddersfield. It will create and developing a 'factory on the machine' linking measurement and production to minimise cost and allow ever increasing complexity and quality in manufacturing. The grant will total £4 million, with an additional £3.2 million from industry partners.
- The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Emergent Macromolecular Therapies, led by University College London. It will create the capabilities by which UK companies will be able to select drug candidates for clinical trials, both on the basis of clinical efficacy manufacturing feasibility, resulting in greatly reduced costs. The grant will total £4.9 million, with an additional £3.9 million from industry partners.
